Sound Art
Week 4Prompt: Take a look at Sonic Experience. Pick one element to dive into, and document an intervention in the real world that exemplifies and/or plays with this phenomenon.
I chose Ubiquity.
The ubiquity effect is the perception of a sound that we can’t locate but know is localized.
This is different from a ubiquitious sound, e.g. the sound of the sea - which we know doesn’t come from one source.
Most crucially:
“ ”
I recorded this sound.
(Through a seashell.)
Then played it back through the shell.
*
Under “textual and media expressions” -
“For the sender, the ubiquitous character of media systems constitutes a major stake of power. Empires spread through the extent of their road system – that is, they were defined by the speed of transit of speech and information. Today, states still attempt to maintain some control over communication networks; radio and television play a social link by diffusing the “great narratives of legitimization” of power to their audiences””
I’m interested in what Ubiquity has to do with power...
“In democratic regimes, however, power requires a formally dis- tinct third party to accredit its discourse and to ensure a connection between democratic power and the public. The media assume the role of the “intermediary narrator.” Consequently, as shown by Louis Quéré, the speaking authority is split between power and media. This division leads to a disappearance of the actual narrator (it is neither the power nor the media narrator that speaks) and a similar splitting of the receiving body: the account of the media is aimed toward both the power it serves, whose desires of power it must fulfill, and toward the public, whose desires are different.24”
Other notes / things to look into:
- Feeling your heartbeat regulates / slows it down?